Teacher Interventions in Fostering Students’ Mathematical Understanding of Algebraic Expressions: An Analysis Based on Pirie Kieren Theory
Teacher intervention is an action taken by teachers to guide students in reviewing their understanding. Comprehensive teacher intervention helps improve students’ mathematical understanding by providing appropriate support throughout the learning process. This study aims to describe teacher intervention in mathematics learning on algebraic expressions. This study employed a descriptive qualitative research design involving eight mathematics teachers from eight junior high schools in Pamekasan during the preliminary observation. Based on the initial observations, three teachers were selected as the research participants. The study was conducted over three months. Data were collected through classroom observations, documentation, and transcripts of mathematics lessons. Data were analyzed using the Pirie–Kieren theory, with its eight layers of understanding serving as the analytical framework for examining teacher intervention. The findings show that the teachers primarily used convergent and probing follow-up questions to explore students’ thinking. These interventions mainly supported students’ understanding at the Structuring layer, where students began reorganizing their mathematical knowledge more systematically. However, interventions that facilitated students’ progression to higher levels of understanding, particularly the Inventising layer, were not identified during the observed lessons. These findings indicate that teacher interventions remained focused on strengthening procedural and structural understanding rather than fostering students’ ability to construct new mathematical ideas independently. Therefore, more varied, exploratory, reflective, and conceptually oriented interventions are needed to promote deeper mathematical understanding. The findings also highlight the importance of professional development programs that support teachers in designing learning environments that encourage reasoning, justification, and mathematical generalization, as well as sustained reflective teaching practices to continuously improve the quality of mathematics instruction.
Keywords: Teacher intervention, Algebraic expression, Mathematical understanding.
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